BY LEE MAGINNIS
NORTHERN Ireland women runners and other competitors with local links featured prominently in the Louth U20, Senior and Masters Athletics Championships at Lourdes Stadium in Drogheda.
Credit to the organisers for putting on such a great event where athletes young and old, from near and far, enjoyed mixing and competing.
Women from Northern Ireland made the short hop across the border, but there were guests from much further afield.
The women’s 400m was the highlight of the night where a treat was in store when Lauren McCourt, an Irish international at U20 age-group made a surprise appearance. Lauren, now a senior, lives in Cork and competes for Bandon AC. She made the journey, albeit with a stop-off in Dublin. Her club-mate, Phil Healy, has made it to the Olympic Games in Paris.
Lauren absolutely blasted round the track in fine form, stopping the clock at an impressive 55.66. With this sort of running on a relatively slow surface, hopefully it won’t be too long before we see her in an Irish vest again.
Behind her in second position, Grainne Moran ran a time of 59.16 taking the U20 title and also the Senior gold as she lives in Dundalk (athletes who don’t live in County Louth compete as guests and cannot claim the titles). She competes for the same club, Sr Gerard’s, as Kate O’Connor, Northern Ireland’s Olympic heptathlete, and like Kate, does most of her training in Northern Ireland. Grainne is coached by Newry’s Francis O’Hagan who guided Aislinn Crossey to a sub 2:04 800m and who coached a young Kate O’Connor in her 800m running.
In a time of 1:14.53 in the second 400m heat, Joanne McCauley finished second F50, wearing the colours of Portadown Running Club. Joanne also finished first F50 in the long jump with 3m 78.
Finally in the women’s 3000m, Portadown Runners had two athletes competing. Gillian Brady topped the F35 category with a time of 13:25 while Julie Beattie was fastest F55 with 13:56, shocking their team manager Colin McDowell so badly that he managed to miss his own race!
